The levels of STDs at some of those communities is astoundingly high.
Related hijack: How are those 55+ communities legal? How is it not age discrimination?
If you move into one & pass you’re 30-something kid can’t move into property they now legally own thru inheritance. (No one in their right mind would pay HOA fees for 20 years until their old enough to move in)
If your kid passes, you can’t take in your orphaned grandchild & remain in the property you legally own & have lived in for some time
I’ve got a few ties to the Ryderwood Washington controversy-My grandparents on my Mother’s side lived there while I was growing up. Lawsuit Leaves Wounds In Seniors-Only Retirement Haven | Northwest News Network and Balvage v. Ryderwood – Epsten, APC (if you want to get all legaly about it). It was a six block by six block retirement village, but “The case questioned whether this 400-person strong community could be so exclusive. It came replete with allegations of shunning, death threats, uncollected garbage and the tossing of a headless rabbit.”
But the midnight Saturday square dances were a hoot, I will admit.
I’ve reached the age where late-life options are on my mind. My parents managed pretty well into their 80s in a straightforward flat with some visiting home helps. I’m nearing that living in a fairly up-market regular development of several hundred flats, some bought and some rented, with residents of all ages and family combinations. There are some common facilities (gym room, swimming pool, leafy central square for sitting out, BBQs, etc, and above all a 24-hour concierge service). It’s not cheap to buy into and in terms of service charges for common services (but it’s a resident-owned company, so we do ultimately control the service charges). Social activities depend entirely on individual initiatives, and have been somewhat lacking recently. No on-site medical, care or catering services, of course, but we’re in a big city.
When I look at “retirement communities” here, the advertising tends to hype “luxury”, and are priced accordingly. Service charges are around 50% more than I pay here, AND they often charge an “exit fee” of some 10-15% of whatever you or your heirs sell for when you “move on”. It’d have to take substantially better on-site medical, care and catering services and social activities to persuade me they’re a good deal.
My inlaws lived in one in Ocala - they chose it because the fees were reasonable 25 years ago. MIL still talks to some of her neighbors there, and the fees have shot up. A big reason seems to be that way back when, much was done by volunteers, but the newer residents don’t want to take on those chores, so they have to hire, hence the higher fees.
My impression was frequent, endless death. It seemed every time we talked to them, someone else on their street or in their circle of friends had died. I know it’s not surprising, but I found it depressing. Two years ago, we moved them to Maryland since FIL had dementia and MIL was nearly blind. FIL has since died and MIL is in hospice in our home. I think she misses her friends, but she realizes there’s no way she can live alone.
Theirs was a neighborhood and there was no care on site, so if they needed assistance, they’d have had to hire someone. My mother has a friend who sold her home and moved into a community that goes from independent to full-time care, and I understand it costs a metric butt-ton, but her friend can afford it. My mom, on the other hand is still in her home at 90, and one of my sisters lives with her. I think she expects to die at home.
As for me, I’m 70 and I’m hoping to stay put till the end. We shall see…
I don’t live in one- but I am thinking of moving to one in the future and have looked at some. First, you have to decide what you want - there’s a continuum that goes from " It’s a condo-like community like any other , just age restricted" to " it’s a condo-like community with some extras" (one community I looked at would put up hurricane shutters for snowbirds and another ran a shuttle to popular destinations (supermarket , mall , casino) to places that include meals and housekeeping like a resort to assisted living to actual nursing home care - and places that include two or three of these levels on the same grounds. For the condo-like community type, they might be free standing houses, mobile homes or apartments - and in the house/mobile home type, you might pay “lot rent” instead of owning the land.
We in our early 60s have started to look into them. One complaint is that the management does not always filter out the people with dementia. My friends in a SoCal place said it is happening to them and they are getting more dementia sufferers in their wing.
My wife and I are going to have to get out of elevation. 11,200 feet and 30 feet of snow a year has become to much. Had a good run of 32 years.
Our house 2 bedroom 2 bath is plenty big enough for us. But we are looking at places that have 5 bedrooms.
Knowing that when we retire, we will be home much more, we each want our own study/office. Our own space. And also have room for guests.
And as we want to ‘age in place’. The extra room could be for a care taker. My mom needed one but did not have the space in her small home. So I was her care taker. And I live 100 miles away. THAT was rough.
Oh, word of the day. Not a retirement community but big subdivision named Sonder. - “The feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own”. It’s a rare thing, that I have to make sure I do.
I am looking for a place to land also. There are very few apartment type centers around here that have community resources but are independent living.
I looked at one that has over 1,000 units of independent apartments and 300 assisted/skilled nursing beds. Their bragging point is that you never have to go outside-the building are all linked with walkways. The trouble with that is it is a two block walk to get to restaurants and mailroom. And a half mile to the pool. I dubbed that place the ant farm. I can walk that now but don’t know where I will be at 85.
My other local available choice is smaller. At least the apartment complex. And it encourages you to get outside. Which will be good when it is not August. They have rows and rows of carports. Nobody wants to give up their cars. They do offer shuttle services to medical appointments and some trips to DC and other events. I look forward to a single level small apartment. The community restaurant idea-I’m not so sure of. They encourage people to hire private caregivers before considering assisted care. Cheaper for them-cheaper (up to a point) for you. They don’t include internet or phone service-too many variables in what people want or need I guess. I was really hoping to drop that aggravation and bill.
There is a buy-in for both places. With either a 50% or 90% refundable portion. It is kind of like Social Security -you have to guess your longevity factor to decide your break even point.
Well I will answer myself…I signed up for the local community and got accepted for their wait-list. I am #23 on the list which will be about a year wait. So time to get my ducks in a row.
There are a couple of options for the buy in. One has a 50% refundable deposit and another refunds 90% The lower one is about $75k less which will pay for two years of rent. The math is workable but you have to consider how long you are going to live to make the numbers work. Just taking my home equity will buy my buy-in and 5 years of fees. My portfolio should be up by then to a higher level. It sounds like a solid plan to me.
Sounds like the complex Dad lived in, and enjoyed. I know the long walks to the pool, etc. seem inconvenient, but that walking does a lot for your mobility and overall health. At some point you might lose the ability to do that walk, but that’s what scooters are for.
I didn’t pick the larger community “the Ant Farm” but I will still have a lot more opportunities to get out then what I have been doing. Just no stairs.
For independent living, while I like the apartment styles that I’ve seen (they remind me of college dorms), we might prefer separate bungalows or houses. We (wife and I) haven’t discussed that yet.
One concern with apartment style is if the elevator goes out. But getting in on the ground floor might be just fine.
You’d think something like Zipcar could take the place of individual car ownership in a community like this, where people might drive somewhere every now and then, but not routinely.
That makes me ask the question … Does zipcar and car rental centers have any restrictions on drivers? Age or fitness?
I don’t know when I will be giving up my driving privileges but there will come a time.
I used to live in a large urban apartment building where people fought over the scant parking spaces constantly–basically, every tenant didn’t own cars when the building was built but over the years the tenants grew prosperous and 50% car ownership grew to over 100% as most people owned cars and some people owned two, while the available parking spaces remained the same. After years of fighting with my neighbors, who demanded to be placed on waiting lists and demanded that others be thrown off waiting lists, etc., I suggested we devote a few spaces to Zipcars for those who needed cars, but not on a daily basis. I made a good case, I thought, but not only did the Parking Committee refuse my suggestion, but I got a letter from Zipcars telling me that my building’s parking lot was a non-starter for them.
My dad bought into a place that is a bit different than what has been described so far, in that it is a cooperative, instead of a community run by a for-profit company. It is essentially a 55+ apartment building with lots of common areas and amenities. Unlike independent living, it does not provide meals.
The one he has was built by https://www.reedevelopment.com/, but once it opens the members hire a management company to take care of the day to day operations.
It was about a $200k buy in to get a coop membership, and then about $2k/month in “rent”, which is the mortgage payment for the building, and the cost to actually run it. Because it is a coop, the monthly cost may go up, but it is not influenced by the rental market in the area, but rather by the cost of utilities, insurance, maintenance, and such.
When he leaves (one way or another), he can sell his membership for the $200k, plus a fixed percentage increase. It is not an investment, and does require residents can afford to park $200k for the duration of their stay, even if they are essentially guaranteed of getting it back.
I suspect that part of the issue is that residents have all owned their own cars for 40 to 60 years; it’s the norm for them, and represents a continuing independence from having to rely on anyone else.
Even if they don’t drive every day, knowing that their own car is sitting there, ready for them to drive at a moment’s notice, is that independence, and it’s familiar. Having to make a reservation, and use an unfamiliar car, just to run to the drug store, requires a real change in how they think about personal transportation.
that’s a business decision, I’m guessing.
I assume the parking lot is private property, accessible only to the residents. That creates a very small pool of consumers, so Zipcar may be afraid of losing money. Also, It may be that their app is programmed to show all currently unused cars, including the cars in your lot. So other nearby customers would naturally see a car and expect it to be available for them, but then find the private lot closed…and get very pissed off at Zipcar.